China: Top news
Another season of slaughter in Taiji, Japan, comes to an end. Many dolphins died over the past six months. Bottlenose dolphins get peculiar "special treatment," albeit not much better than the rest of the dolphins and small whales driven into the notorious Cove.
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Russian conservationists organized a massive turn-out of more than 100,000 petition signers, asking the Russian government to end captures of orcas, beluga whales and dolphins (essentially, any cetaceans) in Russian waters for captivity.
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As 2019 comes to a close, we’re writing to thank you for your ongoing generosity and to share some of IMMP’s key accomplishments this year. 2020 promises to be an especially busy and potentially productive year for whales and dolphins, as our SeaWorld lawsuit finally comes to trial and we organize Olympians and Paralympians to urge Japan to end the killing of dolphins and whales.
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Weather conditions and angry businessmen threaten the final release of the Russian Whale Jail whales. Loading has reportedly halted due to bad weather, but should commence as soon as the weather improves.
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Last Friday, The Russian Fisheries Agency (VNIRO) announced that eleven beluga whales are being moved hundreds of miles from the Whale Jail, east of Vladivostok, to their home waters in the Sea of Okhotsk. The belugas were reportedly picked up on October 18th and loaded onto a research vessel for transport north.
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One of the major questions that confronts the release of cetaceans: Will they be able to find and rejoin their original family pods, despite being in captivity for a prolonged period of time?
A positive answer has now emerged for one of the Whale Jail orcas who has been released. On August 20th, Grigory Tsidulko and other Russian researchers studying bowhead whales around the Shantar Sea were able to photograph a pod of killer whales that included an orca with a satellite tag.
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Thanks to the legal work of Russian conservationists, two of the four companies have received large fines for the captures.
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What species could be so foul as to rip both the fins and the status of top ocean predator from sharks?
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Before jumping to blame China, its important to understand that SeaWorld is a boon to the global industry.
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Campaign Top News
- International Marine Mammal Project >
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From freeing Keiko to saving millions of dolphins from dying in tuna nets, to closing down marine parks including the notorious Whale Jail in Russia, the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute has been in the forefront of efforts to end whaling, the killing of dolphins and protecting the ocean homes of these magnificent beings.
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From the cold reaches of the Russian coast, to Japan's notorious Cove, to global tuna fleets, to Barataria Bay, to the concrete tanks of SeaWorld - the International Marine Mammal Project had key accomplishments for whales and dolphins, thanks to your support!
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There's a lot of whale and dolphin jargon out there. Here's some explanations about what we know about cetaceans.
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- Save Japan Dolphins >
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Sale of live dolphins caught in the bloody Cove of Taiji, Japan, subsidizes the subsequent slaughter of the remaining dolphin pod. So a dolphin is torn from its family, and then will hear its own family die as it is dragged away to a miserable existence in concrete tanks for the rest of its life.
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TAIJI DOLPHIN SLAUGHTER: Police in Taiji like to put on a big show for locals by charging around in zodiacs, pretending to catch "eco-terrorists" who might (but never have) interfered with the dolphin slaughter. To them, the hunts are a big joke. Japanese tax dollars at work!
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Taiji's town government appears to be doubling down on whaling and the slaughter of dolphins. They have a new International Cetacean Center that appears to be dedicated to killing cetaceans. But the $12.2 million Center is virtually empty -- see our photos.
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- Dolphin + Whale Project >
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The recent International Whaling Commission meeting in Lima, Peru, passed an excellent resolution complaining that whaling countries -- Japan, Iceland and Norway -- are using population estimates larger than the IWC Scientific Committee. But a proposal for a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary fell short by one vote.
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Cetaceans (whales and dolphins) have evolved amazing and complex sensory mechanisms to live in the ocean. But those senses are badly compromised when cetaceans are held in small concrete tanks for entertainment. Learn about why captivity is bad for cetacean senses.
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Josh Floum, attorney and president of Earth Island Institute, has led the legal effort to protect dolphins, sea turtles, and other marine life. In legal victory after victory, he's made our oceans safer for all our lives.
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- Keiko Whale Rescue >
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We are deeply saddened at the death of orca whale Tokitae. Calls for her release were denied for decades and it’s shameful that she never got a chance to go home.
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30 years ago, the movie "Free Willy" was a huge hit. The plight of its orca star, Keiko, touched the public along with the moving story. Read how the International Marine Mammal Project took that spark of concern and returned Keiko to his home waters. SeaWorld and other captive dolphin parks would never be the same!
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The last captive orca in Canada, Kiska, has died, after being kept alone for twelve years at the notorious MarineLand park in Niagara Falls. If Tokitae (Lolita) goes home to a seaside sanctuary, the only North American captive orcas will be those in SeaWorld's three parks.
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- Dolphin Safe Fishing >
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Dr. Angel Herrera is the Director of the International Marine Mammal Project’s (IMMP’s) Dolphin Safe (DS) Tuna Monitoring Program in Latin America. As a representative of Earth Island Institute since 1993, his DS monitoring work spans countries including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panamá, Peru, and Uruguay.
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For more than 30 years, Trixie Concepcion and her staff have worked to protect dolphins and other marine life in the Philippines, monitoring tuna fishing in the Western and Central Pacific Oceans to ensure the tuna is caught by Dolphin Safe methods, saving the lives of tens of thousands of dolphins annually.
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The history of the drowning of millions of dolphins by the tuna industry turned a corner in 1990, when US tuna giants agreed to work with the International Marine Mammal Project to establish Dolphin Safe fishing standards that avoid harm to dolphins and other marine life.
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- Freeing Orca Whales from Captivity >
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Behind the life and hopes with Keiko, the orca star of "Free Willy", was an enormous effort to bring him home. A new Serial podcast features a 6-part series on Keiko and his legacy. First two episodes drop on November 14th and can be found on most podcast sites. It features the role of IMMP in coordinating the Free Willy Keiko Foundation.
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There are just 18 orcas left stranded in concrete tanks in North America. They can continue to languish in small tanks doing tricks each day, or they can be retired to seaside sanctuaries, such as the Whale Sanctuary Project.
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Orcas, beluga whales, and other cetaceans do poorly in sterile concrete tanks. A spate of premature deaths of orcas in facilities around the world underscores why captivity should end!
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- Freeing Wikie & Keijo >